Wincey Willis

One of my favourite TV celebrities of the 1980s, Wincey (real name Winsome) emerged into the limelight as TV-am weather girl in May 1983, helping to bring warmth and popular appeal to the channel after its starchy start. She had been spotted doing regional forecasts on Tyne Tees Television.

 Wincey had begun her career as a TV weather girl in July 1981. On a visit to Tyne Tees Television, it was suggested that she audition. Wincey protested that she knew nothing about the weather, but was assured that all the details would come from the Newcastle Weather Centre. It was the day before the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer,  and at the audition Wincey was suddenly told that there was no forecast available - an old ploy to see how the person auditioning would cope under pressure. Wincey had been doing mock forecasts for the Royal Wedding street parties that were to be held throughout the Tyne Tees region, and said that, despite the lack of information at her disposal, she knew it was going to be a fine day because her mother's knee hadn't been aching all week! She got the job, and in 1983 came her TV-am role.

Wincey used her fame to promote her passionate interest in animals and nature. 

Before fame, in 1980/81, whilst working on local radio, she had been asked to present a piece about terrapins on regional Tyne Tees Saturday morning children's show Saturday Shake-Up. This was spotted by Granada producer Muriel Young, who asked Wincey to contribute to three programmes of a 1981 children's series called Graham's Ark. In 1982, Wincey got her own series for pre-school children, Wincey's Pets.

TV Times, 4 June, 1982: Wincey's Pets makes its debut.

Having gained national fame at TV-am, Wincey wrote the books It's Raining Cats And Dogs (1986) and Green Days (1990). In 1986, she devised The Weather Game, a board game manufactured by Waddingtons. She also presented other TV-am features, Wincey's Pets, Wincey's Wall and Caring Christmas, before finally leaving the station in 1987.

In the meantime, Wincey had joined innovative '80s series Treasure Hunt as adjudicator, taking her place alongside Kenneth Kendall and Anneka Rice, and remained there until the final series in 1989, when Anneka was replaced by tennis player Annabel Croft.

Wincey also had the great honour of a mention in a sketch on the wonderful Victoria Wood As Seen On TV series, when a character took out a copy of the (entirely fictional) Wincey Willis Book Of Wholemeal Pasta from the local library!

TV Times, May/June 1982: The wonder woman of animal farm. Wincey is pictured in the days before her glorious mullet with Molly the cockatoo. Here's an extract from the article: 

Rags, a large Airedale crossbreed dog was abandoned by his owners in a state of collapse; Suzie, a Papillon, was a wandering bitch with a very matted coat, Black Puss was a farmyard cat about to be drowned; Tucker the kitten was found thrown away in a dustbin inside a plastic bag; Leo and Lucy were stray cats; and Tiddles lived on his wits in a deserted cottage. These are some of the domestic pets belonging to Wincey Willis, presenter of the series Wincey's Pets and weather forecaster for Tyne Tees Television.

Her collection of 80 animals, many of which have hard luck stories behind them, lives with her and her husband Malcolm in a small cottage standing among fields in the heart of the countryside outside Darlington. The back room has been turned into a home for terrapins, tortoises, cockatoos and other animals that need to be kept warm. In the garden is an aviary with Wincey's collection of exotic birds and a 'hospital' for wild birds recovering from injuries. A bounding gypsy goat leaps in and out of the trees and the whole is presided over by a strutting cockerel.

Wincey, a bubbling blonde with close-cropped hair and cornflower eyes, has always loved animals. 'As a child I never wanted toys - just more pets,' she says. 'I would make model zoos out of cardboard boxes. If a bird fell from a tree or a hedgehog turned up half drowned in a drain, I would always bring it home and my dad would help me look after it and get it well again.'

Over the years, Wincey has built up a reputation as someone who can never say 'no' to an animal in trouble. Strangers turn up at her door with stray pets, fledglings that have fallen out of trees and birds of prey with broken wings. Wincey has made herself an expert on all types of wildlife and her phone is always buzzing with calls from vets, asking her the right mix for hedgehog milk or the correct diet for a song thrush. Her farming neighbours think she is crazy, but they respect her views. Before they plough or harvest, they invite her to inspect their fields so that she can remove any animals or birds to safety before the machines move in.

'To look after wild animals properly and bring them back to fitness so they can be released you have to know what they normally eat and what conditions are like for them in the wild. Trying to simulate their natural diet and living conditions isn't always easy. We had a baby swift once that needed hundreds of tiny flies a day.'

Husband Malcolm, who helps Wincey with her animals, remembers the stay of the swift very well. He was sent into the garden to swat thousands of flies and Wincey boiled them up into a kind of soup. 'But it was worth it,' she says. 'I will never forget the day we let it fly away. It was sheer magic to see it soaring off into the sky'....

Writing about herself in recent years, Wincey says:

You will probably remember me as the mulleted beauty from TV-am with a penchant for bad '80s knitwear...

It all seemed such a good idea at the time - remember, mullets weren't called mullets in the 1980s and seemed very glamorous! Wincey won the honour of the "Head Of The Year" award for her hairdo in 1986.

 It's Raining Cats & Dogs, 1986, This is a lovely read - a twelve month insight into some of Wincey's activities, with an introduction by Gerald Durrell . 

Wincey is still broadcasting and lecturing on media and wildlife conservation, and recently returned to daily weather forecasts on an internet based community news station for West Oxfordshire.

UPDATED 10/6/12

Treasure Hunt

Skyrunning with Anneka Rice. Destination: a ship at sea? The top of a lighthouse? The narrow deck of a submarine freshly risen from the deep blue ocean? No problem for Anneka and her team or pilot Keith Thompson.

The intrepid Anneka with her intrepid sound and camera men, Graham Berry and Frank Meyburgh.

1982 brought us Channel 4, a new telly channel with lots of fresh goodies - including Treasure Hunt - the first series was filmed in '82 and the first programme on-screen in late December, with the rest being screened in early 1983.

The idea for Treasure Hunt came from France - the creative genius in this case was one Jacques Antoine. In 1980, he came up with the idea for a brand new series called La Chasse au trésor and filmed a pilot episode - which was not intended for broadcast. Much work on the concept was still needed - in the pilot episode there was just a single contestant and no helicopter, plus other differences to the format that would later captivate TV audiences. Refined and honed, La Chasse au trésor was first broadcast on 15 March 1981, and refined and honed further for its second season in 1982. Over here in the UK, with Channel 4 cranking up for its November 1982 debut, it wasn't long before the idea was spotted...

Of course, there were some differences between the French and British versions of the show, but basically all Treasure Hunt devotees owe Jacques Antoine a big "Thank You" for coming up with the basic idea in the first place.

Anneka Rice, she of the colourful lycra outfits, was quite sedate for the first Channel 4 series or so, as she sped around the British Isles - and occasionally further afield - in a helicopter, looking for clues so that studio bound contestants could win a cash prize. But it didn't take long for her lively personality to assert itself and soon she was shrieking her head off, chattering away ten-to-the-dozen via a radio link with former news reader Kenneth Kendall and the contestants in the studio or, face-to-face, with the general public, helicopter pilot Captain Keith Thompson, and camera and sound men Graham Berry and Frank Meyburgh.

She livened things up no end - a great 'people person' and just what the show needed.

Members of the "Treasure Hunt" team, including Anneka, Graham and Frank and pilot Captain Keith Thompson (far left).

In series one, clue and course setter Ann Meo popped in at the beginning of each show and exchanged some faintly astringent banter with Kenneth. Ann would later set questions for Blockbusters. In series two, Annette Lynton ("Nettie" to Kenneth) joined the show as on-screen adjudicator, plotting the helicopter's course on a large map and keeping contestants informed of the time remaining to complete the course. 

TV-am weather girl Wincey Willis arrived as adjudicator for the 1985 series and remained until the show ended. The show's final season in 1989 saw professional tennis player Annabel Croft taking over Anneka's role as "skyrunner" for some more highly enjoyable outings.


 Kenneth Kendall with two contestants and a floor manager at the Limehouse TV studios. The programme was made by Chatsworth Television.

Treasure Hunt is a show I remember very fondly.

Some fascinating facts about the series from the 1988 Look-In annual...

Each new series involves no less than 13 months of hectic organisation, and the process begins in November when ideas for new locations are considered. Local maps are checked, guide books are read and tourist offices are contacted about any special events which may be happening during filming. The following month, a list of 15 proposed locations is completed after confirmation that general flying conditions in each area are satisfactory.

In January, two of the team set out for an eight-week tour of the locations to see if they look good, to assess the interest of clue sites, and to establish a good route. Approaches are made to secure landing permissions, and the co-operation of site owners.Channel 4 broadcasts an announcement inviting hopeful contestants to write in, then application forms are sent out, and replies considered, in February.

In March, the best 15 courses are worked out and presented to the producer and director, and then the final 13 chosen. From the thousands who write in, 250 pairs of applicants are invited to attend an interview session.

By April, the task of obtaining permissions from all involved at locations is still under way. Captain Keith Thompson, the chief pilot, contacts local airfields to get the go-ahead for landing and flight paths from local air traffic controllers. Contestants’ interviews are held in various parts of the country.

The final selection of contestants is completed in May; one pair per programme plus one stand-by couple in case the first can’t take part. The producer, director, researcher and clue writer are flown to each location by Keith Thompson for a 10-day period to carefully test each idea. A communications expert organises the rental of special telephone lines from British Telecom and talks to the Independent Broadcasting Authority about the use of local broadcast frequencies. Both are crucial factors to the programme; without them Kenneth Kendall and company back in the TV studio would have no contact with the crew out on location.

During May and early June, dates and locations are confirmed with everyone involved, from the police and the Civil Aviation Authority to property owners. Work begins on clues and Chris Gage, the director, organises the Ordnance Survey maps to be used in the studio. Camera scripts are prepared.

The middle of June is crunch time: it’s when each series is recorded over five intense and hectic weeks during which the location crew work and live closely together. With the filming completed, the painstaking task of editing begins in August. And ends in November! By December, everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the finished programmes are presented to Channel 4 for transmission.

Although bad weather is a constant hazard, only rarely has a shoot had to be postponed. Such a time was when a sudden, heavy fog descended on the helicopter after a tricky landing made by Captain Keith Thompson in a car park. Anneka had to run into a nearby factory in search of a clue when Keith decided that further filming should be abandoned. Two days later, filming was resumed in bright sunshine, and as Anneka ran out of the factory she said: “My goodness, it’s cleared up a bit while I’ve been in there!”

Anneka has to be prepared for literally anything on the programme. “Malcolm [producer Malcolm “The Captain” Heyworth] often rings me up and makes a casual suggestion that I could learn some new energetic pastime which might be called for in one of the programmes,” she grins. “Last time it was scuba diving. I spent many weeks at the bottom of my local baths with tanks on my back for two hours at a stretch until I mastered it.”

The whereabouts of the “Treasure Hunt” clues are shrouded in such secrecy that Anneka is confined to her hotel until the day of the shoot. The only advance information she has then is the starting point of her take-off!

Anneka has nothing but admiration for Graham Berry and Frank Meyburgh, who never leave her side during recordings. “They have to stay with me every step of the way,” she says, “and theirs is a more strenuous job than mine because they have to carry all their equipment, whether it’s up a mountain or to a rock out to sea."

 
 The Treasure Hunt book, 1986. From Anneka's introduction: 

People seem to watch Treasure Hunt for different reasons. For some, it is the excitement of solving the clues before the contestants;  for others it is the glorious countryside, and the stunning aerial photography. For us the Treasure Hunt team, the most important part of the programme is you, the audience.

I am constantly amazed and touched by your letters - I've never worked on a series that inspires so much loyalty among its viewers: I recognise some of the names and handwriting from our first series. As long as you  keep watching, we'll keep rnning. Who knows, in 2010 Graham, Frankie and I may be charging around in motorised bathchairs.